August 28, 2016

Sunday nights is my blog-writing time and for the past few weeks I was either too lazy, too tired, and even sick one time, to post a new blog. So sorry, but thanks for hanging in with me as I continue again. Trying to recount the past few weeks will take too much writing, so I will give brief accounts of August events.

One of my favorite photos of our sweet newest grandson! TJ is a happy, well-fed, loved little boy that we enjoy through photos and FaceTime. Thank goodness for technology that keeps us in touch. 

We were volunteer cooks at the local Marae several times and it was a lot of fun and challenging. Each time we worked with other members too. After looking at the donated food supplies, we had to come  up with the lunch menu on the spot and then got to work. Thankfully, there were men and women who were better cooks than Elder Martin and I who lead the way creating fantastic meals! We were happy to be the choppers, stirrers, and dishwashers.

We enjoyed another outing to the Hamilton Temple with Leti before it closed for a two-week yearly cleaning! A trip to the temple and being able to take one or two other members with us, has become a real treat!

        P-day isn't complete without a trip to one of our favorite beaches. 

Omaha Beach is close enough, is a great walking beach with lots of shells, the golf course is near and there is shopping and several good places to eat. It's a great dog beach with a lot of dog walkers and sometimes, horse-back riders. 

Sorry, but I have to share this "Price is Wright" photo of cute little TJ Wright after his first road trip to a family reunion in Washington.

Stake Musical Firesides are a treat and Elder Martin really loved singing with our ward. Each ward in the Stake performed two songs, one had to be a hymn, but could be a new arrangement. We have a musical genius in our ward who arranged "Sweet Hour of Prayer" and "I Have a Testimony", and they were beautifully done.  I was happy to be in the audience, sitting with members we invited. Several members told Elder Martin they could even hear his voice above the others!

Because our Sister trio was ending soon, we took the girls to One Tree Hill again. This is their second time because the President brings new missionaries here after leaving the MTC. It is a wonderful overlook of the whole city, and he points out where the different Zones are.

The Sisters had never been to our second favorite part of One Tree Hill, and that is the beautiful fig tree, or "Tree of Life" as we call it. They had the best time taking tons of pictures sitting, lounging, or leaning on its gigantic branches! Sadly, Sister Ohlwiler was transferred a few days ago. 

Sister Fisiihoi is the best at taking "selfies"!  She finally got her American visa and left for the Houston, TX mission. We enjoyed our "trio", who worked hard, always seemed to get along, and didn't mind cramming into the back of our car.

One "must see" place we finally visited was The Kauri Museum. It is a two hour drive north and wonderfully tells the story about how early settlers harvested the timber and gum from the giant Kauri trees that once covered the country before the mid 1800's. It was an industry that nearly decimated all the Kauri trees because the wood very desireable and heavily exported. 

This is a massive Kauri slab 22.5 meters long. The museum has displays of working steam sawmills, and furniture and boats made from the very hard kauri wood.

Here are different trunks and how they were transported on wagons pulled by 8-10 bullocks. 

I loved this large picture made from different inlaid woods. It is one of three pictures depicting settler life.

Elder Martin really wanted to sail on the America's Cup Sailboat before going home, which sails everyday around the Auckland Harbor. We had one weekend available and secured our tickets, but the weather wasn't great and it was too windy. Instead, we had to sail on the white yacht above . . . . .

instead of this beauty from the America's Cup race.  In the Maritime Museum, they have the original sailboat and tell the story about when New Zealand won the America's Cup from the USA. I didn't know much about it, but It was pretty amazing! The boat above also competed in the America's Cup, but was owned by the Japanese. It is still a very fast sailboat and an amazing sailing experience, but we will never know, since we have run out of time for sailing in NZ! 

A lovely iconic view of downtown Auckland from the water. We will miss this beautiful city view.

Barely missing the rain, we were treated to one of the brightest rainbows we had ever seen.

Unfortunately, our photo does not capture it's true radiance or beauty.

It was a full arch but I could only photograph one side of it.

Our good friends, the Calderwood's and Byrne's braved the cold winds and came along with us.

Last year when we started our mission, we found the wonderful Mormon Message video that tells the story of the quote above, and we showed it to most of the new members we met. We teared up, along with them every time! It is a wonderful message that is true and full of hope! 

In August, we shared some great lessons, gave important service, and lifted sad spirits. We had a lot of fun, had some challenges, and weathered another winter. Spring is here and while others keep reminding us that we only have a few weeks left, our focus is on finishing strong, doing as much good as we can do to the last day! 

We love our mission and we love all the wonderful members we visit! Why wouldn't everyone want to be a missionary serving full-time! We never thought we would gain more than we've given, but the blessings came soon after we accepted our call even! Heavenly Father is anxious to bless us! 

The Church is true! The Book of Mormon is amazing and another testament of Jesus Christ! God loves each of us and we are His children!

We love and pray for you all!

Love, 

Elder and Sister Martin

July 31, 2016

Craig and I celebrated our 41st anniversary last week! What a great blessing to celebrate 40 and 41 years together while serving a wonderful mission in beautiful New Zealand! We are with each other 24/7 and still smiling! That is a testimony to the joy and blessings of the Gospel and missionary work!

Can you find us! We are on the left and I'm wearing a red sweater. The middle two couples are Sister and President Balli (mission president) and President and Sister Haleck (new Area President). President Haleck held these conferences to meet the missionaries in Auckland. I think this is about 1/4th of our missionaries. President and Sister Balli are wonderful leaders. I don't know how he sleeps at night from taking care of all these young missionaries!

There is a popular store here called Martha's Backyard and they sell American food products. There are cake mixes, candy, pop, cereal, seasonings and tons more.  The longer we are away from home, the more willing we are to pay more than double what they are in the States. We come here mainly to get our fix of salsa and dill pickles. This is the last jar of pickles we have to buy for $17.50 before we go home and buy it for $5.  It's worth it though, to have real dill pickles! I can't fit this huge jar in our fridge, so I have to slice up all the pickles and store them in a Tupperware.

Heather was so happy that her water broke and she started labor after only a few days past her due date. It was hard being so far away and waiting for word of her progress. 

Finally, at 2:30 am our time, we got the text that this darling bundle was been born 45 min. earlier at 7:46 am on Thursday the 29th. We are so happy to welcome grandchild #13 into our family! He was 8lbs. 1 oz. and 20.5 inches, and his name is T.J. (Thomas James) and he is perfect in every way!

You can see how obsessed Bryan is with his beautiful son already! We are so blessed to have a new baby in the family! We love you Heather and Bryan and little TJ!  Now we look forward to grandchild #14 coming to Emily and Kenny in October. Can hardly wait for another little boy!

Piroa Falls! We've been here before, but came again with several other Senior couples. When we find an awesome site, we have to bring others to see it. We love this area, called Waipu. If we lived in New Zealand, we would retire here. It is a quaint town out of the city, has beautiful beaches, a gorgeous golf course, and is less money than other areas. We can't get enough of it!

Wouldn't you like a huge driftwood shark hanging in your house. It is very clever and hangs in a delicious Waipu cafe. The artist is a local from Waipu!

Since we are not available, (and truthfully, I've shed some tears about that) our dear friend and neighbor in Saratoga Springs, Sue Chappell, offered to take my place as grandmother to our new baby! She is loving him up! Thank you Sue! 

We have the best the youth in our ward and loved their performance of a Hawaiian dance for youth conference over last weekend! There was so much enthusiasm and commitment to get it right! 

They all did so well after so many practices. Many great women sewed the dresses and pulled together their accessories! We will truly miss seeing events like this, but hope to access them on FB! 

Just a funny joke I found. Bryan Wright made a joke tonight about Craig and I being born in the 1800's, and he thought it was so funny! Just wait 30 years when little TJ is thinking his dad is pretty ancient! Haha! 

We had a wonderful week not only with family events, but also with missionary events. We were able to take a Samoan missionary to get her visa interview at the American Consulate, read the Book of Mormon with an investigator, help a dear family work through a major problem, teach a few lessons, and keep the Sister missionaries from getting soaked on our many rainy days by giving them rides when we could! Every day is a new adventure serving others and keeping warm and dry! 

A great talk was given by our ward mission leader today and he said, "Find where you teach, and teach where you find." Think about that! Wherever you are there are people waiting to be "found" and waiting to be taught the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to find these people, and teach them in our homes. We should always "invite" because we never know when they will be ready to say yes. One sister's brother invited her for 6 years before she said yes to hearing the missionary lessons. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an amazing church and I invite anyone reading this to find out why I say this. Seek out the wonderful young missionaries you see walking and riding bikes and let them teach you.  You can know for yourself if what they say is true, and it will add more truth to what you already know!

Have a great week and keep praying!

Love,

Elder and Sister Martin

July 24, 2016

Happy Pioneer Day! We honor our pioneer heritage and the great sacrifice the early pioneer saints made for the Church and Gospel! Their example of courage, fortitude, and commitment are eternal! 

This is a shorter blog with a few words under each photo. It's late, my brain is dead, and we have another early day tomorrow. Our days are getting fuller, and longer, but time is going too fast!!!! 

We are so excited though, because, along with the Sisters, we are seeing many successes! We had a fantastic Sacrament Meeting today with great talks and testimonies, and lots of investigators and returning less actives! Its so fun being with them in church and sharing the Gospel! Our ward is really stepping up and inviting others to come! Waterlea Park Ward has a missionary vision! Penrose Stake has a missionary vision too! 

Our own Sister Selwa (from Zambia) was transferred back down our way from up north and it was good to go to lunch and connect again. She is living in Auckland Central, one of the busiest places in Auckland. We loved working with her in our ward and she is one of the best missionaries! 

Why would anyone have a nasty looking giant bug on their roof! When I spyed it while driving down a street, I made Craig stop the car so I could take a picture. I know it's not a Halloween decoration. 

We love taking Alice and Leti to the temple. This time we were proxy for Leti as she was sealed to her parents and it was a special time together! 

Elder Calderwood had a birthday, so we celebrated as a Senior group by going to the movies. We saw Disney's The BFG, and went to dinner at Lonestar. We liked the movie, and nicknamed Elder Calderwood our own BFG (big friendly giant) because he is pretty tall and super friendly. 

We spent part of our last P-day downtown at a World Press 16 Exhibtion, which presents the best visual journalism of the past year. There were amazing photos, but mostly centered around depressing stories. We came away feeling very blessed to live and work in NZ. Also, to be citizens of the most blessed nation, where so many take for granted our freedoms and don't realize how quickly those freedoms can disappear! 

To make us feel better, we went shopping and had lunch. Sister Jackson and Sister Bath are always happy to shop!

Elder Bath and Elder Martin didn't mind following the shoppers! Elder Jackson was doing some service and couldn't be with us, unfortunately.

A nice view of the Auckland Skytower, an icon of downtown.

Last year this time we went to Shakespeare Park for a hike and were surprised to see all these baby lambs prancing about. Last week we came back with our friends so they could see them and although the numbers were fewer, we were not disappointed. They are so cute and seem to be about 3 weeks old. This park is on a narrow pinensula with beautiful views!

I told everyone it was a short walk uphill to see the lambs and it was worth the walk. We also saw some birds I've been wanting to see, the New Zealand Fantail, the Tui, and a Wood Pidgeon! Tui have two voice boxes and make the most unusual sounds. I've heard them many times but had never seen one.

P-day is not complete without time on a beach shell hunting. I got a kick seeing Sister Bath and Sister Jackson bent over picking up shells. I was doing the same myself, only closer to the waters edge. I have quite a collection of shells now and need to mail them home soon. I also need to stop collecting them, but find it hard not picking up "just one more"!

A lovely few from the beach to the hillside at Shakespeare Park where we were with the lambs. It's low tide so the water is shallow and looks like mud, but it's sand. 

We saw these "planters" hanging in a restaurant and thought they were pretty clever.

 A popular expression here is to put the word "as" after different words. For example, "big as" or "sweet as", etc. At the gas station, I like the name of this ice freezer. 

This is so true!  We are so blessed to have great children and grandchildren, and we have learned most of life's great lessons because we were parents! 

Another way to put this is - 

"While we try to teach our members all about the Gospel, our members teach us what the Gospel is all about." 

We teach others about Jesus Christ, but we have learned more of His Gospel than those we've been teaching! Our testimonies have grown so much and we've added greater layers to the foundation we had at the start of our mission. This is one of the great blessings of serving a full-time mission.

We hope you have a great week, serving, loving, working, and doing all you can do for others! 

Thanks you for your support and prayers for us and all the missionaries!

Love,

Elder and Sister Martin